theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for 2020

February Link List

filed under: link love, lists!


Around the Interwebs

A must read, if you care about the election 2020: the disinformation campaign.

Also, knock it the fuck off. Agreed!

What if there is no swing voter?

Yup! Lessons we learn too late in life.

There’s more  than one way to age. How are you doing it? This is a fascinating new approach to understanding aging.

How to make hard life decisions.

How to Stop Wasting Your Life Watching TV and Do Something Worthwhile With Your Downtime. I’d like to state for the record that I watch very little TV (or stream shows), but I still found this article intriguing!

Why don’t people return their shopping carts? (Pet peeve of mine. Do you return your cart?)

We’re already throwing out very little food, but here are some good times on how to reduce food waste.

9 pieces of practical advice about bullying.

Around the blogosphere

How to raise gracious kids.

Age is nothing but a number. I loved this post by Angela and I couldn’t agree more with her attitude. I feel like I am in the best shape of my life. 

The 8 dimensions of wellness.

As someone, who has never been on a diet, I am super-intrigued by this book: Why everyone should read Anti-Diet. I am not sure if I’ve been just lucky, or if I’ve always been intuitive about eating, and I clearly feel like I can’t have an opinion about dieting because I never really had to, but I also believe that intuitive eating sounds like a really healthy approach to food and well-being.

Craftiness/DIY

Make your own DIY dish scrubber.

A colorful DIY spring pom-pom garland.

That looks cozy! The Home Girl Crochet Sweater.

For my runner friends

The forgotten art of squatting. I actually find it comfortable and should do it more often while I can.

7 tips to succeed with morning workouts.

Your guide to fartlek workouts.

Deliciousness

The soup for mushroom lovers like me: Creamy Hungarian Mushroom Soup.

How to roast garlic.

Omenakakku – Finnish apple cake with herbs. Sounds delicious, Tobia!

Oven Fried Cajun Popcorn Chicken with Creamy Honey Mustard. These look so good!

Share a good link with me in the comments!

Five Things Friday Vol.7

filed under: Friday Five

Five Things Friday: just five things I’m thinking about or things that made my week, or things that I otherwise feel like sharing.

Excuse the absence, friends. My host server was undergoing a migration to a new server (which hopefully will finally solve some of my page’s loading problems, because I don’t think the problem was on my end), but I couldn’t really update my blog while the migration was in progress (I think I already lost some comments in the process, because I thought there were some more comments on my recent book post, but they disappeared. If it was yours, I am sorry.) 

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I made this delicious 1-pot Tuscan-style Beef & Lentil Stew this week and you should definitely consider making it sometime before the cold(er) season is over. The combination of ground beef, lentils and kale might seem a little odd, but I promise you, it totally works! Jon has been requesting it again already. 

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I attended an author training class at work last week. At my work-place, publications are everything (well, not everything, but pretty important and I’ve only been co-author on some publications so far.) In all honesty, I should have taken this class a long time ago. I can’t believe I have been here so long and nobody ever suggested I take this class. Just one more thing I missed out on when I was a contractor, I guess, but I am really glad I was finally able to take it. So much valuable information.

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You know what the trick is to get 5 miles in on the treadmill before you go to work? Getting to the gym early enough, which means not hitting the snooze button and actually getting out the door and to the gym by 5:15 a.m. at the lastest, so you have time to run and shower and make it to work on time. Mind-blowingly simple, am I right? I’ve been shifting around my workout routine a bit and now have time to run 5 miles before work (on Thursdays) and I like it. 

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Highlight of my week: On Tuesday, I had the pleasure to finally meet a long-time IG and blog friend in person. Kathrin lives in the Bay Area with her family and we’ve been following each other online for quite a while. She was on her way to Tahoe on Tuesday and so she asked if I would be able to meet up for a coffee around lunch time. Of course, I said yes! We took a walk around the park and chatted away for about an hour before she drove on to Tahoe and I went back to work. It was really great to finally meet her in person! #URLtoIRL

TGIF!

P.S. In case you noticed: I didn’t mention Valentine’s Day. We don’t really celebrate it around here, but if you do, have a great Valentine’s Day!

What I read in January

filed under: books

I read three books in January, which is a good start into 2020.  

I liked my life by Abby Fabiaschi (★★★☆☆)

This book had a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews and I’ll admit that it had some good moments and a few bits of real wisdom scattered along the way, but overall I wasn’t a big fan. First clue: the book didn’t engage me, I had to keep pushing to pick it up. For me, that’s not a good sign. 
The plot was intriguing enough: Maddy has apparently killed herself and is now looking on from the afterlife and is trying to meddle with her husband’s and daughter’s coming to terms with her death and moving forward without her.
The book is written from different perspectives with alternating chapters narrated by Maddy, Brady (her husband), and Eve (her daughter). While this setup works sometimes, I generally don’t love this writing style much. There were also a couple too many side plots going on that didn’t really contribute to the main story, IMHO.

Oh yeah, and I didn’t care for the ending. It felt a bit too forced to me, but I leave this for you to decide. 

The love prison made and unmade: my story by Ebony Roberts (★★★★★)

This book was heart-breaking, but ultimately very realistic. Well, it’s a memoir, so realistic or not, it’s someone’s real story. This is so much more than just a love story between two people, but a critical look at the justice system and its effects on prisoners and their loved ones. Growing up with an abusive father, Roberts vows to not make the same mistakes that her parents made. As a strong-willed and educated woman, she works to improve prison conditions and then falls in love with an incarcerated man, despite her better judgment. Her story shows that intellect doesn’t always win over the heart and that love and hope can make you throw all caution out the window.

While the title gives away how her story ends, it was a special treat to follow Roberts’ journey. I have felt a lot of sympathy for her situation and the hope and steadfast belief that she felt throughout the telling of her story. 

Everything happens for a reason: and other lies I loved by Kate Bowler (★★★☆☆)

This book was intriguing because the title really spoke to me. People throw around that “everything happens for a reason” so often and nonchalantly in a failed attempt to offer comfort, but I am a pretty strong proponent that actually ‘nothing’ in life really happens for any reason. 
The book was religion/faith-heavy, as Bowler, a history professor at Duke Divinity school, grapples with a devastating health diagnosis. She’s the author of a book about the history of the ‘prosperity gospel’,  the controversial religious belief among some Protestant Christians that financial and personal blessings are always the will of God, and she discusses her diagnosis against the backdrop of these religious beliefs.

I guess I was hoping for a little more of a concise message; her writing meanders a bit, but  I liked that she used some dark humor and funny anecdotes to lighten the mood and she shared good tips on how to support someone with terminal illness.

What did you read in January? Anything you’d like to recommend? Leave a comment, and then add me on Goodreads to keep in touch.

One Little Word® for 2020: Cultivate

filed under: OLW

As every year, I struggle a bit with the start of a brand new year, a brand new slate and the pressure to set goals and resolutions and have it all mapped out on January, 1. 

That usually never happens for me and it’s been taking me a while to come up with my guiding word for the year. I’ve come to the conclusion that setting resolutions and goals is great but there is one more thing that is more important that making quantifiable goals: setting good intentions. I don’t need a list to “check off”, but rather an ongoing motivation to work towards progress and improvement.

So, my word for 2020 is CULTIVATE.

cultivate /ˈkʌltɪveɪt/ (verb)

to foster the growth of something
to improve by labor, care, or study 
to further encourage

For me, to cultivate means to make an intentional and ongoing investment in the things that matter, and that’s something that I can definitely get on board with. So, here are a few things I want to cultivate this year.

I want to cultivate the power of positive thinking. I am generally a ‘glass-half-full’-kinda person, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get into a negative, non-productive headspace every once in a while. I want to work on actively getting myself out of that, when I recognize what is happening.

I want to cultivate a better time-perception strategy. I said before that I often feel rushed and as if there are not enough hours in the day (to do all the things I want to do), and while I can’t actually get a few extra hours (we all get 24, sad but true!), I am hoping to trick my time-perception to slow down and to make time feel “longer”. I read about this little trick that in order to give yourself the sense that you have more time, you should do more than one activity in an evening. This might sound counterintuitive at first, but I actually believe it’s true. I bounce between things most of the time anyway, but if I dedicate a certain time slot to something (let’s say “read 15 minutes every night” or “go for a 20 min walk”), I have felt as if my evenings were longer. Worth trying more often, IMHO.

I want to cultivate a healthy lifestyle. I mentioned in my list of things I want to do in 2020 that I have some fitness and health goals. I think I am already focusing on a healthy lifestyle, but this is where I want to pick up this guiding word and cultivate good even better habits around hydration, healthy eating, and exercise.

I want to (re-)cultivate my creativity. I definitely go through phases with creativity and I am hoping to dedicate more time again to new creative projects, skills, and ideas this year. 

I want to cultivate better self-advocacy.  I want to work on speaking up and asking for things that I want (and deserve), especially in my work setting. I recently came to the realization that I haven’t been a good advocate for myself, sometimes because I didn’t speak up, sometimes because I didn’t know better. I wonder now if that might have held me back in my career, even though I’ve been at my job for 15 years. I still tend to let other people take over conversations or situations, as if I am somehow inferior to my peers, especially in settings where I am new or inexplicably don’t feel 100% confident in my own knowledge.

And this leads me to my last point.

I want to cultivate my confidence. This sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? I am not sure how I come off to other people, but I’d usually think of myself as a confident person. I have never been afraid to do my own thing or state my opinion, even if it was different from everybody else’s, but I definitely suffer a bit from imposter syndrome at times, and I really want to nip that awful way of thinking and the tendency to self-doubt in the butt.

What’s your word for 2020?

Here are the words I picked in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Women’s retreat at Tahoe

filed under: holidays, recap, travel, weekend

My friend Susi invited me along for a girls’ weekend with some of her mom friends from German School. We were headed to Tahoe over the MLK holiday weekend and stayed at U’s vacation home in Truckee. I was thrilled to get up to the mountains during winter time and very thankful that I was invited to come along. 

It’s always a little awkward when you join a group of people that you mostly don’t know and my introverted self was a little bit anxious, but as so often, the worry was unnecessary and dissipated quickly once we had all introduced each other. We ended up having a really great time.

We arrived around 6 pm at Friday night in a winter wonderland. I couldn’t have been happier. 

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We had previously talked about things we wanted to do while we were there, and besides some outdoor activities during the day, we had all agreed on just hanging out at the house, cooking together, puzzling, reading, knitting/crocheting, and just enjoying each others’ company.

We also played Cards Against Humanity, which I had heard about, but had never played before. Well, let’s just say that it’s true that it’s “a party game for horrible people”, because some of the card statements made me either blush or drop my jaw. However, I am wondering what it says about me that I didn’t just win this game once, but twice over the weekend. 

As J noted: still waters run deep. 

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Some of the women went cross country skiing on Saturday, while Susi and I and C hung out at the house. We went on a nice snow walk around the neighborhood and then started (the first of two) puzzle(s) when we got back.

The puzzle was really cool: the posters of all the U.S. National Parks. 

We started a second puzzle in the evening and everybody got involved.

On Sunday, Susi and I had planned to go downhill skiing, but the week before the getaway, Susi had injured her knee and couldn’t participate in any sporting activities. As I didn’t know if anyone else wanted to go, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to go skiing after all, but luckily, three others wanted to go and so we headed over to Homewood Mountain Resort on the western shore of Lake Tahoe in the morning.

I have my ski boots here in California, but don’t own skis anymore, so I had to rent them and I almost toppled over backwards when I heard that they wanted $99 for just the ski rental for the day. Gosh, Tahoe’s expensive. But hey, there was no backing out now. 

Luckily, I had already bought the lift ticket for a discount at REI.

I was a little taken aback by the “outdatedness” of the ski resort. The ticket had to be scanned by hand (I was used to automatic scanners that read the ski ticket through your jacket) and when we got to the chair lift, it didn’t have a safety bar. I’ve never seen that in the Alps.

BUT: once I hit the slopes, it was blissful. Originally, we had planned to ski for a half day, but in the end, we spent 6 hours on the slopes. The others were beginners, so we took the easier runs most of the time, but that was fine with me. I was just happy to be skiing! The day was a little overcast, which was great because the snow stayed great the whole time. 

And the views! Just amazing! We kept going back for more and spent 6 hours on the slopes!


Sunday night was for a movie, a delicious dinner, and face masks before we all headed to bed. We had planned to head back home early on Martin Luther King Jr Day to beat the holiday traffic, so the last night was an early night for all of us.

It was a really great weekend though and I am so glad I was asked to come along!

Did you do something fun over the long holiday weekend?

Monthly Recap | January

filed under: my so-called life, recap

Can you believe that January is already over?  I feel like we just celebrated New Year’s Eve. Gah. I can’t be the only one. But here we are, it’s January, 31st and we’re doing the monthly recap. Let’s do this.

READ 

Three books! 2020 reading is off to a pretty good start. One of the books I read was “The love prison made and unmade” by Ebony Roberts, a memoir about the toll prison takes on people and their loved ones. Powerful and heart-breaking.

COOKED

I cooked roasted Japanese sweet potatoes for the first time (hint: they’re purple with white flesh) and they’re a beautiful mix between a sweet potato and a normal potato. You should give them a try. We also keep making this broccoli-chicken soup that I previously recommended.

WATCHED

I watched the Academy Awards (sort of) and the News (in small doses). I also watched a German movie (“Dancing Quietly”) and a German Christmas mini-series (“Holiday Secrets“) on Netflix at the beginning of the month. 

LISTENED TO 

I listened to a few episodes of  Pod Save America and also Michael Moore’s new podcast Rumble with Michael Moore. 

BOUGHT

I bought a new planner at the beginning of this month. And I used a gift card to buy two fitness and health books at Barnes and Noble. (I forgot how much fun actual book stores are. Note to self: go more often!) I also picked up a couple of dumbbell weights to use at home for strength workouts. Oh, and not to forget: tickets for Pearl Jam in the spring. Woot!

RAN (and cycled)

I ran 35 miles and cycled 51 miles. I mentioned this week that my goal is to run 600 miles this year, which would come out to 50 miles per month. I didn’t quite hit that number this month, but I am hoping to get some higher mileage months in the spring! 

GOING-ONS

+ I am so thrilled I got a VersaDesk at work. A little back story: I used to have a height-adjustable standing desk in my old office which I never really used much.  I had to give it up when I moved into the cubicle, but of course, instantly regretted that I never took advantage of it when I had it. When our safety officer sent out an email at the beginning of the month that a couple of VersaDesks were available, I instantly jumped on it. It’s a little big for my cubicle, but I’ve been working standing up for a couple of hours every day and I love it. 

+ As you already know, I went on a girls’ weekend retreat at Tahoe in January (yes, I am still planning to share a recap). I was nice to get away to the snow. It’s so strange because it never snows in Sacramento but you drive 1,5 hours east and we’re in a winter wonderland. I love it.

+ My friend Tanja and I set a goal to do two strength workouts at home during the week on the days when we don’t go to cycling or the gym. It’s great to have an accountability buddy to check in with and to keep each other motivated and on track! 

+ I trimmed my own hair. After complaining about how expensive it is to get my ends trimmed (even at the barber shop), I took matters into my own hands last week and just chopped off 2 inches of my hair myself. 

+ I finally made homemade granola again and used an adapted recipe with buckwheat. Have you ever tried it in granola? It has a nice crunch!

+ I mentioned in my Five Things Friday-post that one of our favorite restaurants has “50 Cent Wing Monday” and we didn’t only go once, but twice this month. How can you resist?

+ I’ve been trying to establish a new habit of taking more lunch break walks, especially on days when I don’t go to the gym or run outside. I work a desk job for 10+ hours a day, so it’s imperative that I get some extra steps in during the day!

+ Is anyone following the Impeachment Trial?  Of course, I am not watching the full day coverage, but what I see in the evenings is enough to want to pull my hair out. I cannot believe some of the arguments that are made! Is the president really above the law? How can a lawyer argue that if it’s in the interest of the country for the president to be re-elected, he can pretty much do anything? (I want to see that precedent stand when a Democrat is president again, which by the way, I think shouldn’t!) So yeah, as always, things are frustrating as hell on the political front. 

How was your January?

Monthly Favorites | January

filed under: monthly favorites

1. My sister sent me a hand-sewn heating pad for Christmas (I love that she’s also crafty when she has the time!) and it’s been my best friend for the last few weeks. We like to keep our home on the cooler side, so I heat this up at night and take it with me when I go to bed and it’s wonderful. 

2. I was introduced to the deliciousness of Cotswold Double Gloucester Cheese* this month. TBH, there aren’t many cheese that I don’t like, but I also usually have my go-to cheeses and rarely branch out. I am glad that I was able to try this cheese (as I don’t know if I would have picked it up at the store by myself), because it’s DELICIOUS. Go buy some at Trader Joe’s.

3. I probably mentioned before that I love puzzles but rarely do any. Over the long MLK weekend, I got to do some puzzles with some friends and it was so much fun that it’s making my favorites list. I think I’d like to get some more puzzles. 

4. Do you like Kiwi? I always forget how much I like Kiwi*. I rarely buy it and I don’t really know why (maybe I don’t like to peel it? Maybe I just forget how good it is?), but I am trying to remember that I actually enjoy the taste very much.

5. I’ve been using The Ordinary “Buffet” Peptide Serum* on and off for a while and I really like it. It can be a little ‘sticky’ used by itself, but I use in at night before I put on moisturizer and it’s a nice combination to hydrate my skin while I sleep.

6. I was never a big fan of green tea*, but for some reason, I’ve recently taken a liking to it. Maybe it’s because I’ve set this goal to properly “hydrate” during the day and I can better reach my goal if I add more (decaf) tea to my hydrating options.

7. I’ve been a little bit obsessed with My Fitness Pal* this month. I’ve been “loosely” tracking my food and water intake for well over a year, more out of curiosity than anything else, but I’ve committed this month to really be diligent about tracking food and especially water (because I have a hydration goal, see above) and pay attention to the macros a bit. 

What was one of your favorite things this month?

#notanad, This is not a sponsored post. I have not been compensated by the brand or anyone else for linking the websites.

Tuesday Topics | What was your favorite book you read last year?

filed under: books, Tuesday Topics

I am glad to link up with  Kookyrunner and Zenaida  for Tuesday Topics today, as I was planning to share my favorite reads from 2019 with you anyway. 

I only read 27 books last year, less than half than the previous year, none of them running books, but that’s ok. Reading is not a competition (at least not for me) and while I always strive to read more, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I still read some great book last year that I’d love to share with you. I think if I had to pick a favorite one, it would be Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’, but I gave four books 5 stars and then I am adding one of the many 4 star books here randomly (because it stands out for me in my memory. Maybe it should have been a 5 star book for that very reason).

Here are my top 5:

Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

This is a story about a pianist with ALS and the havoc the disease causes for his entire family. His ex-wife, a pianist herself, steps up as his caretaker. The story beautifully written, detail-oriented (we sometimes feel like we’re in the room with him, his thoughts, and his failing body) and simultaneously explores the progression of the disease and the aftermath of his failed marriage and the regrets and hopes he has, as the end of his life is approaching.

Becoming by Michelle Obama 

I loved reading about Michelle’s childhood on the Southside of Chicago and how she met Barack. It was fascinating to read some of the private in and outs of being the First Family and living in that big house on Pennsylvania Avenue, but I especially loved her candor and vulnerability when she talked about her feelings surrounding Barack’s presidency (who knew she wasn’t so thrilled about the idea?), her role as a  mother and First Lady, and the backlash she had to endure. It’s amazing to me how she handled all this with so much strength and grace.

You think it, you’ll say it by Curtis Sittenfeld 

This book completely surprised  me. When I realized that I picked up a book of short stories, I wasn’t sure this book was  going to be for me, but turns out, I loved it. Sittenfeld tackles many relevant topics — social media, class issues, gender roles, political differences, etc. I was particularly surprised by how much she made me care about the characters in just 10 to 20 pages; she did a phenomenal job of developing a story and making me feel invested in a short amount of time. I found all of the stories well executed and my only ‘complaint’ is that I wanted them to last longer and to learn more about the characters. Sittenfeld is a great writer and I highly recommend this book.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

I was a little hesitant when I realized that this book was written in free verse, but turns out, it almost read like a regular book with the freedom to condense and abbreviate otherwise elaborate parts, while still telling a beautiful, emotionally full story. It totally worked and I felt myself enamored by Woodson’s childhood memories and take-aways. I read this book in one sitting (granted, it’s a fast read!) and you should, too.

Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride 

Transgenderism seems to have been such a hot-button topic last year and this book was a great resource. If a memoir about coming out as transgender isn’t enough in a climate where transgender people still face discrimination and non-acceptance, Sarah McBride takes on Washington politics as an advocate for transgender rights, while falling in love, getting married and losing her (also transgender) husband to cancer at the age of twenty-four. 

I felt myself rooting for her in every aspect of her life throughout the book and hope she’ll continue to spread hope. Through her candid openness and honesty, I feel that I have a better understanding about some of the complexities and nuances of being transgender in America today.

What was your favorite book in 2019? Check out the other books I read and add me on Goodreads to keep in touch.

Things I want to do in 2020

filed under: goals, lists!


Go skiing (and snowboarding).

Guess what, I already checked that off my list last week when I went to Tahoe with some friends. Skiing is secretly always on my goals’ list. It’s a real shame that I live two hours from the snow and go so rarely. I want to change that. It’s hard to get up to the mountains, if your husband is not much of a snow person, but I am hoping to go once or twice more this season. 

Travel this summer with my family

I might have mentioned it here before, but if not: my family is coming to visit this summer; my parents, my sister and BIL and the kids, and I am beyond excited. They’ll be here for about three weeks and we’re in the midst of planning another epic road trip together. I wish they could just come and I could host them at our place, but unfortunately, we don’t have the space and of course, they want to see more than Sacramento if they come all the way over here. So we’ll be traveling together quite a bit and I am sure it will be a blast!

Improve my fitness and break the 2 hour-mark in the half marathon.

Does this goal sound familiar? Yes, because I copied it from last year. I did NOT run a sub-2 hour half marathon last year, so it’s staying on the goals’ list. I also didn’t run three half marathons (as two of the three I was planning to run fell during the time when I was traveling to Germany), which means I only got one shot at setting a new PR and since the only half marathon I ran was San Francisco ( = hills) I knew it was kind of a long shot. 

Run at least 600 miles this year.

I want to up my running mileage again this year. I ran 469 miles in 2019, but I would love to hit 600 miles again this year. This amounts to 50 miles per month. That should be doable, even if I throw in cycling and more cross-training.

Work on my Etsy shop.

If you follow me on social media, you might know that I own a shop on Etsy. Once upon a time, it was a little endeavor I started with my neighbor-friend across the hall, but she moved away, had kids, and eventually decided that she didn’t have the time to invest time in our little shop anymore. For almost a year, I contemplated what to do; close shop or continue on my own. I eventually decided that I didn’t want this creative outlet go. I’ll tell you more about that decision in a separate post. 

Read more than 27 books.

2019 was a slow reading year for me. I think I finished 27 books, only barely more than half than I had hoped. But, reading is supposed to be fun and I am not  going to put a number goal on it, if that means I am going to put unnecessary pressure on myself.

Continue to invest in healthy living

I have a lot of fitness goals on my list here and along with this goes a focus on healthy living. I’ve started tracking food and macros this month,  not to lose weight, but to be more aware of how I fuel my body. I also set myself a goal of drinking at least 60 oz of water every day, because hydrating properly has been an on-and-off challenge for me over the years.

One act of kindness every week.

I always try to be a nice person, but I am hoping to purposefully make someone’s day every week. It can be through offering a helpful hand, a sympathetic ear, heartfelt advice, or a simple compliment. It’s so easy to make someone’s day better by adding some positivity and kindness. Yes, it’s awkward sometimes to offer a compliment to a stranger, but every time someone has done it for me, it buoyed me up through the day and beyond.

Be intentional with my time.

This is nothing new. I always feel pressed for time, have so many competing interests. Sometimes, I am guilty of mindless scrolling on social media and when people tell me that they’ve been watching this show or listened to that  podcasts, I sometimes feel left out or like I am missing out, but I want to focus on the things that interest me this year and not feel bad to not jump on every bandwagon.

Keep up with my planner/journal.

I’ve tried my hand at bullet journaling the last two years and it was an on-again-off-again love affair. When I was bullet journaling, I was doing it 110%, until I wasn’t and didn’t touch it for a couple of months. I hated these empty pages in between. So, for 2020,  I bought a new, traditional planner and I am hoping that I’ll better be able to keep up with it this year.

Did you set any goals for 2020?

Five Things Friday Vol.6

filed under: Friday Five

Five Things Friday: just five things I’m thinking about or things that made my week, or things that I otherwise feel like sharing.

Well, I thought about posting a lot this week, but the writing part didn’t happen, so I am pledging to write some more over the weekend and finally get a few more “new year’s posts” up next week before January is already over.

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I skipped the gym yesterday morning because I either slept through my alarm or turned it off and instantly fell back asleep (probably the later), but I don’t have any recollection of it. Does that ever happen to you? This rarely happens to me and I am surprised, because I was in bed by 9 pm. I guess, my body needed the sleep. I woke up at 6:30 am, startled by the garbage truck outside, and only had time to jump out of bed, get ready and head to work. 

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One of our favorite restaurants has a “50 cent wing Monday” and it’s really hard not to go there every Monday for wings. Haha. It’s such a good deal and the wings are delicious! We got a gift card for Christmas, so that gave us an easy excuse to go last week!

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I am happy to report that I am actually busy again at work. This week flew by (granted, it was a short week for me with Monday being a holiday) and at the end of the day, I often felt like I needed an extra few hours to get a few more things done. I prefer that over twiddling my thumbs hoping for the clock to hit 6 pm.

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Highlight of my week: I scored tickets for the Pearl Jam Tour this spring. Hell yeah! If you know me, you know that I am a huge Pearl Jam fan (name that song in my blog title!) and if you know Pearl Jam, then you know they rarely go on tour and the tickets are always sold within minutes! 

TGIF!

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